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Independent business blogs are blogs that aren't supported by an organization like a magazine, newspaper, company, or business school. Those people provide lots of great content, but they don't need any additional exposure. In this post, every week, I bring you posts of quality from excellent bloggers that don't get as much publicity.

This week, I'm pointing you to posts on strategy, project-based leadership, blame, compensation, and the purpose of a corporation.

From the N2Growth Blog: In Support of Strategy
"Let me be as blunt as I can – The issue should not be strategy vs. tactics, but strategy and tactics. While separate functions and disciplines, one cannot prosper without the other. Strategy is what provides the tactical road-map, and it is tactical execution that validates and delivers strategy. The noise attempting to lift one up above the other is simply more unneeded rhetoric. The best strategy cannot succeed without tactical execution, and tactical execution is much easier to achieve with the clarity provided by a sound strategy."

Wally's Comment: I confess that I wasn't really aware that "strategy" had become a term of derision in some quarters. Mike Myatt's excellent post lays out some of the issues along with his clear ideas.

Mike's post also reminded me of a post I read on Erika Andersen's Being Strategic blog. I suggest you check out Erika's post, "Being Strategic = ?" for a slightly different take.

From Management Excellence: Learning to Lead in the Project-Focused World
"The rise of “the project” as an important means of competing and creating value has profound implications for those in leadership roles.  Unfortunately, in many cases, the evolution in leadership practices has not kept pace with the needs of project teams or the needs of organizations struggling to develop competence at executing on projects. Our traditional models of leadership emphasize the development of skills and practices that focus on individuals and teams generally operating under the umbrella of a single functional leader. However, firms moving towards a project-focused culture tend to start by overlaying a matrix form project management structure on top of the traditional functional orientation.  This new and non-traditional environment offers a host of new problems and challenges for leaders used to being masters of their own domains."

Wally's Comment: The world Art Petty is describing seems to have snuck up on us while we weren't looking. He's not talking about old time "matrix management" that was more driven by theory than business purpose or effect. Nor is it the world of industries like the movies, where every project is self-contained and walled off from others.

From Bob Sutton: Blame, Failure, and The No Asshole Rule
"As I emphasize on my list to left of 15 Things That I Believe, one of the best diagnostic to assess whether an organization is effective or innovative is "What Happens When Someone Makes a Mistake?" I made that this argument one way or another in every book I have every written and perhaps 50% of the speeches I have made in the past decade.  As I say in the above link (which is a story about Amazon, an organization that continually impresses me with its learning culture)."

Wally's Comment: When I did more consulting, I always asked two questions on a new assignment. "Who succeeds around here?" and "What happens when someone makes a mistake?"Bob Sutton likes that latter question and has written his usual high-quality resource-rich post about it.

There's another aspect to this issue. You can give all the lip-service you want to "encouraging people to take risks," but if the people who take risks that don't work out suffer for it, they'll stop trying. It's far better to create a culture where there's tolerance for human fallibility and where there simply is no risk in well-intentioned tries.

From Compensation Force: Reflecting on the Money-Happiness Connection
"When is happiness about how much you earn?"

Wally's Comment: One of Ann Bares' special gifts is the ability to discuss compensation as a human function. That's what she does in this post, using a provocative study as the starting point and adding her observations to broaden the case.

From Trust Matters: The Purpose of a Company Is...
"Thinking that the purpose of a company is to make a profit is like believing that the purpose of living is to eat. Now that we’re clear about where I stand, and that this is going to be a bit of a rant, here we go."

Wally's Comment: This is one of the richest posts I've ever read. If it doesn't get you thinking, you need someone to check your vital signs. Charles Green discusses the hijacking of Milton Friedman's classic line, gives you an overview of the history of the corporation, and suggests that "The real role of companies is hardly self-evident; in fact, it’s an excellent subject for public policy debate. The key question is: what do we want the role to be?" That should get you started.

Resource Note: If you're looking for more on the history of the corporation, let me suggest The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.